Ink jet printing apparatus, ink jet print head, ink jet printing method, and method and program for setting print conditions

Abstract

In manufacturing a long ink jet print head in which a plurality of chips are arranged, the present invention can suppress a decrease in yield resulting from the inappropriate arrangement of the chips and enables high-quality images to be printed. To achieve this, the present invention prints an image corresponding to the joining portion between adjacent chips by using, as overlapping nozzles, those of the nozzles located in the joining portion which are selected on the basis of the amount of misalignment between chips.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a long ink jet print head in which a plurality of relatively short nozzle chips provided with nozzles are precisely arranged (what is called a joined head), an ink jet printing apparatus that prints images using this ink jet print head, an ink jet printing method, and a method and program for setting print conditions. [0003] 2. Description of the Related Art [0004] The following printing apparatuses are configured to print images (including characters and symbols) on print media such as sheets, thin plastic plates, or the like: those which are used for printers, copiers, and the like or which are used as composite electronic equipment including a computer, a word processor, or the like as well as output equipment such as a workstation. These printing apparatuses can be classified into an ink jet type, a wire dot type, and a laser beam type according to a printing system. [0005] Seria...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides an ink jet print head and ink jet printing apparatus that can print high-quality images even with misaligned chips. By selecting nozzles based on the misalignment between chips, the invention reduces the decrease in yield caused by misalignment. Additionally, the invention simplifies the processing of an image by pre-measuring and storing the amount of misalignment between chips. The technical effects of the invention include improved print quality, simplified image processing, and improved yield of ink jet print heads.

Problems solved by technology

However, for the full-multi type ink jet print head, it is difficult to machine, without any defects, all of a large number of ejection openings arranged across the width of a print area on the print medium and all elements (ink jet print elements) required to eject ink from the ejection openings.

It is difficult to machine, without any defects, all ink jet print elements corresponding to the large number of ejection openings.

Given that such print heads free from any defects can be manufactured, their efficiency percentage is very low and their manufacture costs are enormous.

However, with the joined head, image density is disadvantageously likely to be uneven in printed images corresponding to the joining portions among the plurality of chips.

However, even with the above measures for suppressing the occurrence of joining stripes, if the array of a plurality of chips becomes defective during a process of manufacturing print heads, suppressing the occurrence of joining strips is difficult.

Thus, if long print heads are manufactured by arranging a large number of chips, even when a defect occurs in only one of the joining portions among the chips, that print head as a whole must be rejected.

This reduces the yield of print heads.

Moreover, the improved precision of a device for arranging a plurality of chips increases manufacture costs.

Images